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They're doing a great job at associating the new Xbox with the biggest franchises in the world in the minds of US 18-34 males.
Meanwhile Sony started with that piece of shit Knack and doubled down on its own franchises, flop accessories and titles from a misguided Japanese industry.

Knack's game director Mark Cerny has a formidable CV that cites him as producer of iconic titles such as Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, as well as the designer of Ratchet & Clank and cult Mega Drive favourite Kid Chameleon.

It's basically MOAR XBOX isn't it? But desperately trying to be a set top box. No always on DRM shows they came to some vague level of sense.

If they can keep the game bit fine, and I can still ignore most of the useless 'xbox' branded entertainment shenanigans I may indeed get one. That said if Sony keep PSPlus's ludicrously good ​selection of free games up through the PS4, they'll have my vote instead.

Exactly. Here in Australia and for much of the rest of the world, where we have no Netflix or Hulu or really anything for streaming media, this will be absolutely useless.

On the plus side, at least the hardware isn't as crippled as I assumed it was going to be. From a PC perspective however this announcement has one interesting element - we know what the hardware is, and since a hypothetical Steambox would probably launch close to the consoles, we know what it's going up against, and what it needs to do to compete.

Nalano's Law - As an online gaming discussion regarding restrictions grows longer, the probability of a post likening the topic to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea approaches one.
Soldant's Law - A person will happily suspend their moral values if they can express moral outrage by doing so.

Not as far as we know? Valve releasing their own consumer hardware seems fairly likely to me, especially since they want to carve out their own Linux market where they can have far greater control and effectively own the market. I wouldn't call it vapourware just yet.

Nalano's Law - As an online gaming discussion regarding restrictions grows longer, the probability of a post likening the topic to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea approaches one.
Soldant's Law - A person will happily suspend their moral values if they can express moral outrage by doing so.

In fact, it intends to be a PC for dumb people. It gathers several entertainment functions in one place, oh, and it plays games. They don't even emphasize the games anymore, and there are no interesting exclusive titles. For this product, gamers are a small niche. I doubt it's a coincidence it looks like a VCR.

This can either bring Microsoft a mountain of money, or fail spectacularly. Judging by the lack of applause, I'm leaning towards the later. Microsoft, Apple are companies I don't want to see dominating anything.

What, like a Steambox? Because everyone was all like "Oh awesome Steambox x86 console take my money!" when that idea got tossed around.

That said the original Xbox was an x86 system with a Pentium 3, but it used a custom OS which was probably built on NT, so the fact that it's x86 may mean nothing at this stage. For maximum integration though if I was MS I'd have it run some sort of Windows 8 based OS. Imagine the possibilities.

Nalano's Law - As an online gaming discussion regarding restrictions grows longer, the probability of a post likening the topic to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea approaches one.
Soldant's Law - A person will happily suspend their moral values if they can express moral outrage by doing so.

Excuse me while I vomit a little. Both the marketing strategy and that design actually make me feel sick... Oh...

Ah, better now. Yes, looks just like an old Phillips tape deck. They're doomed (console gamers) long live the PC gamer!

Originally Posted by soldant

What, like a Steambox? Because everyone was all like "Oh awesome Steambox x86 console take my money!" when that idea got tossed around.

That said the original Xbox was an x86 system with a Pentium 3, but it used a custom OS which was probably built on NT, so the fact that it's x86 may mean nothing at this stage. For maximum integration though if I was MS I'd have it run some sort of Windows 8 based OS. Imagine the possibilities.

I can install any OS on a Steambox. I don't call that "dumb". Honestly, we care not what Valve do, but if they offer a free meal, we may take a bite. Xbox/PS4 comes with a poisoned Apple (tie into everything else they provide and no way "out").

True, but the entire idea behind it is to have Steam up front and centre taking care of everything for you in Big Picture mode, and the long term goal for Valve is to put Linux on top (and good luck with that...) to remove all of the "trouble" out of PC gaming. I know that the Xbox One won't be like a PC in terms of software support (they'll lock it down, question is whether you can break it open) but calling it a "dumb" PC is a bit silly. Valve are effectively aiming for the same strategy. Installing a different OS is pretty pointless if you're trying to hide all of that from the end user to make things "easier".

Nalano's Law - As an online gaming discussion regarding restrictions grows longer, the probability of a post likening the topic to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea approaches one.
Soldant's Law - A person will happily suspend their moral values if they can express moral outrage by doing so.